


Scrap Metal

by rinabina



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Episode IX, F/M, Post-Trailer, Star Wars - Freeform, The Rise of Skywalker - Freeform, star wars: rise of skywalker, tie fighter jump!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 09:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18466615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinabina/pseuds/rinabina
Summary: Sand twisted under her foot as she pivoted, facing away from the approaching craft.  She watched it over her shoulder and started counting.  When the fighter lowered itself to the sand and kicked up dust, she started to run. The sound set her teeth on edge, all round her, like the screams of the dead.  Her ears popped and crackled and the choking acrid smell of space made her eyes water. When she could feel the heat of the ship at her back, she leapt into the sky, arching upwards and upside down toward the ship.





	Scrap Metal

**Author's Note:**

> Me and everyone else will be taking their shot at this! Here's my take :)

She felt the moment he had decided to come to her.

That lingering, inky blackness of Ben Solo; deep in her heart and stomach, seeping through her like poison.  

Rey felt it always, it seemed.  Ever since he had her strapped to that table on Starkiller Base and they’d tunneled that ill-forsaken pathway between their minds.  Not long ago, when he had touched the calloused tips of his fingers to hers, it had triggered a feeling – a  _ vision _ – so intense, she would never forget it. For all the time she had left in the universe.

Belonging.

_ Hope.   _

So buoyant and bright, it lifted her up when everything else was lost.

Like now, when she and her Resistance companions were trapped on this kriffing desert wasteland on an improbable mission with an impossible odds.

But she’d felt him.  Not just the flickering ember of his power in the darkness of her mind, but his physical presence.  No Force trickery. 

Blood and bone.

He was coming here to find her.  

They had not spoken since their ill-fated argument in the incinerated wasteland of Snoke’s chamber, and she had not seen him since she’d shut the  _ Falcon _ ’s gangplank in his face on Crait.  Some how she had shuttered their Force bond, and for the last several months she had been at peace.

More or less.

Rey supposed she should have been angry that she hadn’t returned to the Resistance with the son of General Organa by her side.  Admittedly, she didn’t know what she had expected to happen. He would have been arrested for treason the moment his feet hit ground near the troops.  But still, she’d wanted him on her side. Wanted him as a friend, even. 

Still, she had not been angry.  Sad, perhaps, but she’d had plenty on her mind since then.  After Crait, she had gained back Finn and the General. It was an instantaneous trade-off for the loss of Luke, and of Ben.  Now she had Poe, and Rose, and BB-8, the little droid she loved more than she should.

This morning, her companions had not questioned her when she’d left camp, with nothing but her saber clipped to her waist.  She wondered what they would say if she returned at sundown with Ben Solo. 

Or Kylo Ren.  

Whoever he was today.

The desert around her was a barren wasteland, scorched like the sun in the heat of the day.  She felt the burning on her shoulders and the top of her head. Rey did not feel out of place here, nor lost, even though there was no sign of civilization for as far as she could see.  She knew the desert, she knew how to mark the horizon and track her steps.

In the distance Rey saw a black dot in the sky, and heard the distant scream of a TIE grade fighter.  His presence expanded in her chest, ignited with the emotions in his heart. It felt like the ruined ash of the throne room they had last shared.  

Ben Solo was coming apart at the seams.

The thrill of being in his presence again made her heart stutter.  Exposed to that much power, she felt like a conduit, brimming with Force powers unknown.  He was like a streak of lightning, a burning star – too bright for his own good. 

Adrenaline rose up through Rey’s body and she began to suck in deep breaths.  In her mind, she told her heart to slow, her brain to relax, her blood to slow.  Ben Solo did not have the power here.

She did.

He would find her much stronger than the last time they met.  As proof, she unclipped the newly built saber from her belt and ignited it.  In the yellow light of the sand and sun, the blade looked almost white. It hummed pleasantly in her hand.

The transparisteel of the fighter’s viewport gleamed in the sun, winking at her, teasingly.  He was approaching fast. Too fast.

Rey let her eyes fall closed, anchored herself to the sand and the planet – the rocks under her feet, the dry air on her skin.  The Force centered her to the core of this world, holding her fast, yet giving her freedom to fly if she pushed hard enough.

The scream of the engine grew louder and she felt a trembling in her very bones.  It was the legendary sound of fear and death across the galaxy – a sound she knew very well from her childhood on Jakku.

Even still, she did not feel fear now.

She felt hope again.

The ship hurtled closer to where she stood, and she could make out the details now.  Sharp pointed arrays, black durasteel hull. A TIE Silencer. 

Sand twisted under her foot as she pivoted, facing away from the approaching craft.  She watched it over her shoulder and started counting. When the fighter lowered itself to the sand and kicked up dust, she started to run.

The sound set her teeth on edge, all round her, like the screams of the dead.  Her ears popped and crackled and the choking acrid smell of space made her eyes water.

When she could feel the heat of the ship at her back, she leapt into the sky, arching upwards and upside down toward the ship.  Her eyes caught the flashy red trim on the viewport and wing panels. Useless marks of rank and power. The kind of customization only First Order credits could buy.

She sailed over the ship in an arc as it sped by, robes rippling in the wind around her.  Ben Solo watched her from inside the viewport and their eyes caught. She knew that look.

Earlier that morning, when she had walked away from camp, she hadn’t had a plan.  Rey had wondered if perhaps she would return with only tokens of his memory. That perhaps she would have to kill him if it came to it.

But the look in his eyes wasn’t of anger.  It wasn’t even hatred. 

When she decided to jump, she had pictured slicing a clean line down his fighter, from bow to aft. Perhaps cutting off the hatch and having the pressure change throw him from the ship. 

Instead, she swung her saber down and cleanly uncoupled the twin ion engine from the hull.

As she righted herself and fell back to the ground, Ben and his ship crashed onto the sand and slid forward towards a dune, propelled only by its lingering flight speed. 

Her feet hit the sand hard and she fell to her knees.  Breath was expelled from her lungs as she absorbed the force of her impact.  Ahead, the fighter slid to a stop and into the towering face of the sand dune.  The dust cloud lingered around them, like a gritty fog.

She rooted herself to the sand, fingers curling into the grains at her feet as she waited for what would happen next.

She watched for movement. 

The hatch of the Silencer blasted off its hinges and into the air.  Two hands gripped the edge and Rey watched Ben pull himself from the wreckage.   _ Now _ he was angry, she knew that much. He was practically shimmering with it.

At her? At himself?

From her position, all she could see was the dark, massive frame of him, wrapped from head to toe in black.  He stumbled into the sand, bracing himself for a moment to catch his breath. She watched and waited until she saw the pale shape of his face lift, felt the snap of their bond as he saw her, sensed the gradual dispation of his anger.

Rey stood then, cool and slow, reminding herself that she alone wielded the power on this planet.  Her steps were deliberate, one after the other, sand falling away from the underside of her boots. Each step brought her closer to her persuer.

When Ben finally stood, his cloak billowed around him. He looked magnificent, tall and powerful. His hair blew around his face, boyish and free from his ridiculous helmet. He seemed to take her in, the small shape of her, unarmed aside from her saber.

Rey kept a meter between them, avoiding the shadow his body cast on the sand at her feet.  Instead she gazed into the sun towards him. 

Silence stretched between them for an eternity of heartbeats.  She wondered if perhaps he’d shout at her, like last time. If he would be crazed with Force lust or grief.  She worried about the strength of his hands on her, if he were to grab her, and if she was strong enough to pull away.

What happened, instead, was not anything she would have imagined, or anything she had planned for.  Ben Solo dropped to his knees at her feet.

His face broke, eyes wide and shining in the sunlight.  “Rey,” he breathed.

It was  _ relief. _

She didn’t dare move.  His hands fell between his knees, palms facing upwards to the sky.  Totally, and completely powerless. There were dark circles under his eyes; deep and purple like bruises.  His hair was a stringy mess. He looked _ exhausted _ .

“Ben,” she said, helplessly, then dropped on her knees before him.  “What have they done to you?”

He looked down at his hands, shoulders slumped and sand blowing around their knees.  Rey did what the most compassionate leader in the galaxy had taught her. She grabbed a fistful of his tunic, and pulled him into an embrace. 

His body was warm, like a radiator, and so much bigger than hers, yet she held on tight. Behind him, the wreckage of his ship was still steaming, bits of the glossy arrays in pieces on the ground. 

Rey felt as though she’d embraced a krayt dragon, and she realized she was waiting for him to snap. She braced herself for him to bristle and shove her away, so he could gobble her up for her foolishness. 

It caught her completely off guard when she felt both his arms wrap around her and hold tight. His face pressed into her shoulder, breaths coming hard and fast against her skin.

_ You’re not alone _ .

It repeated over and over inside her head and she hoped he could hear it -  _ feel _ it.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said, voice muffled.

“Why?” She had her hand pressed into the space between his shoulder blades.  It was damp with sweat, and hot as the sun. 

Ben sat back to meet her eye.  “You said you would help me,” he said.  “Did you mean it?”

That had been a lifetime ago, trapped in the turbolift with her hands in binders, hurtling upwards to meet her fate.

_ “You'll turn. I'll help you.”  _ she’d said.

“Of course.”  She answered without thinking.  “But...Ben?”

His eyes lifted, and she caught the brightness of them in the sunlight, shadowed under his dark brows.

“What happened?”

He snorted and looked away.  “Haven’t you seen the feeds?”

Anger bloomed, hot and bright in her stomach.  “The  _ feeds _ .  I’ve been trapped on this wasteland for almost a cycle, trying to find–” she cut herself off.  “No feeds.”

“I’ve been made a spectacle,” Ben said, darkly.  “Shamed and driven out by The Order. It’s Hux you have to worry about now, it always was.”

“Hux…” she repeated, picturing the sneering, ginger-haired man she’d seen in the holograms.  

“The point is, I’m as good as dead to them now. To everyone.”  He watched her again, waiting.

“But not to me,” she said, in a whisper.

“I had hoped not.”

They watched each other as the sun began to dip in the sky.  The intensity began to wear off, the light dimmed just enough to cast an orange glow on the world around them.  “My companions will not be happy to see you,” Rey said at last.

Ben grimaced.  “I’m not looking forward to seeing them either, but they’re not why I’m here.”

“Oh?”

He shook his head.  “Let me train you.”

Rey sat back.  “Train  _ me _ ?”

“In combat.  In strategy. We can work together.”

_ Together _  It was all she had wanted.

He leaned forward, excitement building within him.  “I meant what I said before, only I got it the wrong way around.”  Ben wasn’t holding out his hand this time, but the memory of their last encounter echoed loudly in her head.

_ “You’re still holding on. Let go!” _

“Rey, I want to join you.”

Something opened up in her chest at his words, raw and gaping.  She shook her head and stood to her feet, sand fluttering off her clothes in the breeze.  She walked away from him and the wreck to stare out into the wasteland. The truth was, Ben still was the krayt dragon.  He was docile in her arms for now, but what about after? Would she be able to handle it again when the dragon bit her?

When he left?

She turned when she felt him step behind her.  “How can I trust you?” she asked. “ _ Why _ should I trust you?”

“You’ve always trusted me, a ridiculous amount, in fact.”  Ben gestured to his ship, to where they’d just knelt in the sand.  “You didn’t even check if I was armed and you…” His cheeks flushed and he looked away, shoving his hair from his face.

“That’s foolishness,” Rey said, “Inexperience.”

“No it isn’t,” Ben said, voice firm.  “You know, deep down, what I am.”

He stepped closer.

“You watched me murder my father. You rallied for my redemption at the mercy of my master. You–” he laughed to himself. “– _ jumped _ over my fucking ship just now.  Rey.”

She realized she was breathing hard.

“Please,” he said.  “I begged before, but I wasn’t ready then.  I need you. I need your help.”

“A filthy scavenger?” she tried, helplessly.

“Don’t,” he said, face serious.  “You were always more than that to me.”

They both turned away and watched the edge of the sky as it started to twist into pink and yellows.  Rey slowed her breathing, eased the tremble in her heart. Ben still stood beside her. She felt the warmth of him at the back of her shoulder.  Eventually she turned enough to catch the dark shape of his chest in the corner of her eye.

“Finn will try to kill you,” she said.  “And Poe will probably tie you to our generator.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have you on my side.”

She turned fully to face him and lifted a hand to shade her eyes.  “I might let him tie you up.”

“Well, I’d deserve it.”

Rey sighed.  “You really want this.”

“It’s the only way,”  he said. “Search your feelings and you’ll see it too.”

She would.  Later. After the long walk back to camp, a walk they would most likely not make before sundown.  But she did trust him, more than anyone did, except perhaps his own mother.

The hope in her chest was alive again.  If what he said was true, if he  _ truly _ wanted to join her, then they could end all of this.  War, fighting, misunderstanding.

But there was a long way to go before any of that made a difference.  She did what she could to dim the buoyant light in her chest, and buttoned up her feelings enough to keep him at arm’s length.  For now, her trust would have to be enough.

“Do you want anything off your ship?” she said, gruffly, starting towards the direction of camp.

“No,” he said, following obediently.  “It’s just scrap metal now.”

**Author's Note:**

> I want them to fall in actual love this movie...I WANT IT. Eight months to mull it over.
> 
> Happy to see your Star Wars fandom! I'll be back, I'm sure.
> 
> <3<3


End file.
